Liza Minnelli

Minnelli has been married four times. Her first marriage, to Australian entertainer Peter Allen, lasted from 1967 until their divorce in 1974. She married film producer and director Jack Haley Jr. in September 1974, divorcing in 1979. Later that year, she married sculptor and stage manager Mark Gero in a ceremony where she wore a design by close friend Halston. Following their 1992 divorce, Minnelli married concert promoter David Gest in March 2002, an event attended by over a thousand guests, including best man Michael Jackson and matron of honor Elizabeth Taylor. Minnelli and Gest separated in 2003 and finalized their divorce in 2007. Minnelli has no children.

Throughout the 1970s, Minnelli was a prominent figure at New York City's Studio 54, where she frequently socialized with fashion designer Halston and artist Andy Warhol. She formed an enduring creative and personal bond with Halston, who dressed her for decades, and Warhol photographed her for a series of portraits. During this era, Minnelli also had romantic relationships with actor Peter Sellers and director Martin Scorsese.

Minnelli has managed significant physical health challenges throughout her life. She was diagnosed with scoliosis in her youth, an ailment that shaped her distinct movement and dance posture. In 2000, she survived a severe case of viral encephalitis; despite initial medical forecasts that she might never speak or walk again, she underwent intensive daily rehabilitation in voice and dance to return to live performing. She has also been open about past struggles with substance dependence, entering treatment centers including the Betty Ford Clinic in 1984.

Minnelli was born on March 12, 1946, in Los Angeles, California, to entertainer Judy Garland and filmmaker Vincente Minnelli. Named after Ira Gershwin's song "Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away)," she was immersed in the entertainment industry from infancy, making an uncredited appearance at age three in the 1949 film In the Good Old Summertime. She attended the High School of Performing Arts in New York City and the Chadwick School before dedicating herself to stage performance.

Her professional stage breakthrough occurred in 1963 in an Off-Broadway revival of the musical Best Foot Forward, which earned her a Theatre World Award. The following year, Minnelli performed alongside her mother in a pair of acclaimed concerts at the London Palladium. In 1965, at age 19, she starred on Broadway in Flora the Red Menace, marking the start of a multi-decade creative partnership with songwriters John Kander and Fred Ebb. Minnelli won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the performance, becoming the youngest recipient of the award at that time.

Minnelli transitioned into feature films with a supporting part in Albert Finney's Charlie Bubbles (1968), followed by a critically acclaimed leading performance as the eccentric teenager Pookie Adams in Alan J. Pakula's The Sterile Cuckoo (1969). The role earned Minnelli her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role. After starring in Otto Preminger's Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon (1970), she was cast as Berlin cabaret singer Sally Bowles in Bob Fosse's film adaptation of Cabaret (1972).

Cabaret proved to be an international milestone in Minnelli's career. Her portrayal won her the Academy Award for Best Actress, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe Award. Simultaneously, she became the first performer featured on the covers of Time and Newsweek during the same week. Following this success, she starred in the Fosse-directed television concert Liza with a "Z" (1972), which received four Emmy Awards. Later film roles included Martin Scorsese's musical drama New York, New York (1977), which introduced her signature version of the title song, and the 1981 box-office hit comedy Arthur, co-starring Dudley Moore.

Beyond theater and cinema, Minnelli established herself as an elite live entertainer. She broke venue attendance records at Carnegie Hall with multi-week solo runs in 1979 and 1987, and performed sellout engagements at Radio City Music Hall in the early 1990s. Between 1988 and 1990, she headlined the worldwide concert tour Frank, Liza & Sammy: The Ultimate Event alongside Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.

Her recording output spanned pop standards, show tunes, and contemporary music. In 1989, she collaborated with the British pop duo Pet Shop Boys on the electronic dance album Results, yielding international charting singles such as "Losing My Mind." In 1990, she was presented with the Grammy Legend Award, completing a non-competitive EGOT. Later stage engagements included taking over the title role in Broadway's Victor/Victoria in 1997 and mounting her Tony-winning concert show Liza's at The Palace...! in 2008. In the 2000s, she found a new generation of fans playing the eccentric socialite Lucille Austero on the critically acclaimed television sitcom Arrested Development.